Many client devices today include a “contacts” function that is an electronic address book and/or an information storage function. A contact refers to a person or business about whom several types of information can be recorded, such as an e-mail address, street address, multiple phone numbers, and any other information that relates to the contact, such as a birthday or anniversary date, for example.
Applications can use contacts to simplify execution of the applications. For example, a user may select a contact from a contact list to initiate an email message to the contact, or to establish a phone call with the contact.
To perform such a task, a user typically scrolls through his/her address books and master contact lists in the address books, and selects the contact entry corresponding to the person or business that the user wishes to contact. However, this can become burdensome if the master list is large, if the user has multiple address books, and/or if the user is operating a small handheld device with limited display capabilities. In these instances, a user may find it more convenient to enter the contact information to execute the application rather than searching through many entries to locate the stored contact information.
In addition, as contact information changes, a user may need to manually update or modify his contact lists or organization of the lists due to such changes or other changes in the user's communication patterns, for example.